"Critics often interpret ‘Der Verlorene’ as a fable about the crimes of the Nazi regime...but I don’t think it was really Peter’s intention to rub the Germans’ noses in what they’d done. Dr. Rothe’s predicament might be more of a metaphor for what happens to people during wartime, when they see and do things so traumatizing that they can never return to what used to pass for a normal, civilized life." Anne Sharp, The Peter Lorre Companion.
Directed by and starring Peter Lorre, Der Verlorene, or "The Lost Ones," was a commercial failure: it was shown for only ten days after its Frankfurt premiere in 1951.
In Der Verlorene, set after the end of World War II, Dr. Karl Rothe (Lorre) runs into an old friend from his Nazi past. The visit provokes a flashback to the war, when Rothe murdered his fiance after he discovered she was selling Nazi secrets to the Allies. Rothe's Nazi cohorts covered up that crime, but his guilt, a clear symbol of the collective guilt of the German people, made him wild and aimless, and he went on to murder several other people in a futile attempt to achieve emotional closure. Rothe's memories of his wartime atrocities eventually lead to his suicide.
In Der Verlorene, set after the end of World War II, Dr. Karl Rothe (Lorre) runs into an old friend from his Nazi past. The visit provokes a flashback to the war, when Rothe murdered his fiance after he discovered she was selling Nazi secrets to the Allies. Rothe's Nazi cohorts covered up that crime, but his guilt, a clear symbol of the collective guilt of the German people, made him wild and aimless, and he went on to murder several other people in a futile attempt to achieve emotional closure. Rothe's memories of his wartime atrocities eventually lead to his suicide.
In this clip, Rothe laments, "Thousands were dead...but only I survived," reflecting his profound guilt and, by extension, the collective guilt of the German people, many of whom had nothing to do with the Nazis' crimes.
"Fascism made the social structure run backwards, forcing professionals like Rothe into the employment of the Nazis, mirroring the predicament faced by the German population at large." Robert Kesser, Senses of Cinema.
In the movie, Rothe works closely with displaced Germans who had been uprooted during the chaos of war. He works as a doctor, a knowledgeable and seemingly empathetic figure; this occupation highlights Rothe's all-consuming guilt, as well as his continuing efforts to atone for his terrible crimes.
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Here, Rothe says that "all debts must be paid,"referring to the efforts of his Nazi colleagues to cover up his first murder. The concept of atonement is one of the film's most important themes.
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The patients Rothe cares for are likewise "lost ones," albeit for different reasons: his disorientation stems from his guilt, while the refugees he treats are literally homeless. The interactions between Rothe and his patients point up the fact that both ex-Nazis and ordinary Germans, ruthless murderers and innocent civilians, suffered similarly intense physical and psychological hardships after Germany's collapse.